Date with Death: A Cosy Murder Mystery Full of Yorkshire Wit and Warmth

By Julia Chapman

Meet two sleuths from a sleepy Yorkshire village as they investigate murders and discover the secrets behind the twitching curtains. Date with Death is the first cosy crime novel in Julia Chapman’s Dales Detective series, perfect for fans of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club and M. C. Beaton.

Samson O’Brien has been dismissed from the police force, and returns to his hometown of Bruncliffe in the Yorkshire Dales to set up the Dales Detective Agency. However, the villagers aren’t that welcoming to a man they see as trouble.

Delilah Metcalfe is struggling to keep her business, the Dales Dating Agency, afloat as well as trying to control her wayward dog, Tolpuddle, when Samson’s first case – a supposed suicide – takes an unexpected turn, and a trail of deaths lead back to the door of Delilah’s agency.

With suspicion hanging over someone they both care for, the two feuding neighbours soon realize that they need to work together to solve the mystery of the dating deaths. But working together is easier said than done . . .

Full of wit, warmth and characters you’ll care about, continue the murder mystery series with Date with Malice.

Praise for The Dales Detective series:

'Enlivened with numerous subplots, the story moves at a cracking pace' – Daily Mail

'Bags of Yorkshire charm and wit' – Northern Echo

'A classic whodunnit' – Cath Staincliffe, author of Blue Murder

'Full of dry wit and clever plotting' – Countryside

'Chapman delivers on every level' – Lancashire Evening Post

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Release date: Mar 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9781509823826

Julia Chapman

Julia Chapman is the author of the Dales Detective series, which follows the adventures of Samson O'Brien and Delilah Metcalfe as they solve cases in the Yorkshire Dales. Born with a wanderlust that keeps her moving, Julia has followed her restless feet to Japan, Australia, the USA and France. She spent the majority of that time as a teacher of English as a Foreign Language but also dabbled in bookselling, pawnbroking, waitressing and was once 'checkout-chick of the month' at a supermarket in South Australia! Her first series of books, the Fogas Chronicles, were written while she was running an auberge in the French Pyrenees with her husband. Published under her real name, Julia Stagg, the novels are set in that spectacular mountain area. Now, having spent many years wandering, she is glad to call the Yorkshire Dales home, its distinctive landscape and way of life providing the setting for her cosy crime series.

Reviews for Date with Death

[atreic · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I went in with low expectations, but enjoyed this sweet and slightly ridiculous murder mystery set in a very chocolate box stereotype of the Yorkshire Dales.

[adonisguilfoyle · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Not my usual read, but I found the whole series in colourful paperback at a local bookshop and was intrigued. I didn't buy the paperback, of course, I 'borrowed' a copy from Kindle Unlimited, but the advertising certainly worked! Also, who can beat a good Yorkshire setting?Samson and Delilah - see what she did there? - find themselves reluctantly working alongside each other in the small Dales village where they both grew up. She runs the DDA - Dales Dating Agency - and is a computer tech, while he also runs the DDA - Dales Detective Agency - and is on the run from his career in the Metropolitan Police. When three men who signed up for Delilah's speed dating evenings are found dead, Samson is hired to investigate, and Delilah also gets involved.I did like the characters, despite the cute names, and the supporting cast in Bruncliffe as a whole. Everybody knows everybody else's business, which both helps and hinders the investigation, and very few people are happy to see Samson return after fourteen years down south. The murders kept me guessing, and reading, mainly because I'm useless at picking up clues, and I have already bought book two! (For 99p - now that's Yorkshire economics for you!)Only one detail - I couldn't help but imagine Samson to look a little like a cross between Fabio, of the old Mills and Boon novels, and a Chippendale - must be the long hair (which I'm guessing is because of his name!) and all the stripping off he does!

[edwardsgt · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Light-hearted crime story set in the Yorkshire Dales, which doesn't take itself too seriously. Samson returns to his home town after many years away and being investigated for some unspecified potential misdemeanor, whilst working as an undercover police officer in London. His return isn't welcomed by many locals, given his abrupt departure previously, but he sets up a detective agency in shared premises with Delilah (really), who is running the Dale's Dating Agency. It seems several of the latter's male clients have met an untimely death and Samson is soon asked to investigate by one of the victim's mothers.

[pgchuis · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It says in the blurb on the back of my edition that this novel is for fans of Midsomer Murders, and I can see what is meant by that: there is a continual insistence on the Dales setting (which becomes a little tiresome after a while) and an unfeasibly high body count. The main characters, Samson (the PI) and Delilah (who runs a dating agency) were likeable, but there was so much setting of the scene, introducing of a myriad of characters, and filling in of the background and histories of the main families, that it took too long for the plot to get going. This is very clearly the first in a series; we never got to the bottom of why Samson had left London, nor what had happened with his family farm and his dad's sheltered accommodation.Also, despite what the lawyer in the story says, after death a person's will is a matter of public record.

[cbl_tn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

After a 14-year absence, Samson O'Brien returns to his hometown in the Yorkshire Dales to lie low in the wake of a yet-to-be-revealed incident. O'Brien has been an undercover cop, so he plans to use his skills to earn income as a private detective. Delilah Metcalfe is struggling to keep her Internet dating business afloat. She sets her personal grudge against Samson aside to lease office space for his business since the rental income may be all that keeps her from bankruptcy. When Delilah realizes that a string of “accidental” deaths are linked to her recent speed dating event, she joins forces with Samson to find the killer lurking in their midst.I found much to enjoy in this mystery debut. The pacing is a little too slow at the beginning of the book, but the reader's patience is rewarded with interesting and well-defined characters, a well-plotted with just the right number of red herrings, and a strong sense of place. The local landscape is integral to the plot and it's difficult to imagine it set anywhere else. The enigma surrounding Samson's sudden return to the Dales is left for development in future series installments, and I'm already impatient for more.This review is based on an electronic advance reading copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley.